For most businesses, effective, streamlined management of corporate data, for example customer databases, is a substantial issue and becomes quite complex when multiple software programs, operating systems, and computer platforms are involved. Typically, if a user wishes to transfer data from, for example, a customer relations management (CRM) software program to a financial management (FM) software program, the user is limited to copy/paste functions contained in the operating system (OS) software, in which relatively limited data may be selected in the source program and subsequently transferred to the target program without further options. Similarly, drag/drop methods allow a user to share relatively limited information between concurrently running software programs by using a pointing device that selects information and transfers it to a target program. Import/export functionality is built in to most database management software programs, however, this feature has limitations in that the files to be imported must meet certain criteria for successful incorporation into the target program, or are altogether program-specific.
A common means of data management in business applications is in the form of predefined “object types,” wherein a given object type may contain one or more predefined “database objects.” Within an opportunity object type, there may be certain specific database objects, and within the database objects, there may be individual fields which form the object. An example of a predefined object type may be an “opportunity” object type. Opportunities may contain business-related information about sales or certain opportunities of which a user wishes to be informed. An opportunity may contain database objects such as specific information about a company and their business practices, or information about clients that may be potential customers. The individual fields within the database objects can include information such as customer name, phone number, and address.
Transferring opportunity or database objects between the same or differing applications can be a daunting task if individual database objects must be individually selected, copied, and pasted from one location to another. The aforementioned copy/paste, drag/drop, and import/export functions lack dynamic control of data during the paste/drop/import phase, in that the data gets incorporated into the target program “as is” (typically from the “clipboard”), and the user must then modify this data manually. A method of data transferal allowing users to share data information between the same or different software programs and software operating systems, and with the ability to dynamically modify incoming data to the target location would be highly beneficial toward efficient corporate data management practices.